Sunday, September 12, 2010

Avoiding the Wanzen

Hallo! We are having trouble keeping this thing current – maybe because our 26 students for the fall are here, maybe because the kids aren’t yet in full-time school, but maybe also just because we’re not very good at this. With that said….

Our students are here! We’ve had 10 days together here at the Marketenderschlossl, and we’re happy to report that we have really good group of students. There have been bumps, of course, and there will probably continue to be. But overall they are nice, they work hard (and play hard!), and are wonderful with Teo and Mara. They are also really excited about being here, learning some German, exploring Austria and Europe. So we’re happy. The house is full of life. Sometimes a bit too much life, a bit too noisy a life, but what did we expect, right?

We escaped for two fun outings this weekend. The first was to Legoland – the postponed trip from the day of Kim’s diesel accident (see prior post).

Turns out it is exactly the same as in Carlsbad. A little spooky, but also exactly like Ikea is the same as elsewhere…. That is globalization for you. (Not exactly the same, the city models are of European cities and places. Check out the FC Bayern stadium!)

Kids were thrilled, and we were too, especially after we both got soaked on the pirate ship adventure by a gang of angry German 12 year olds. Of course, we got ponchos for the kids, so they were fine. We thought we would get nailed again at the Lego store on the way out, but Teo is in a character phase, so didn’t even hit us up for a big set. We were puzzled, but didn’t ask any questions and headed back to the car for the three-hour trip home.

This morning we went for a nice nature walk with our friends Kirstin and Gerhard and their kids, to a small lake (Seewald See – Lake-Forest Lake) just a half-hour from Salzburg. As you can see, beautiful.

We like these friends a great deal – and not just because they have repeatedly taken us to nice places known mostly to locals. The kids can’t communicate with each other (yet), but Florian seems to always have airplanes nearby, so he and Teo manage… quietly. We’re also getting used to relaxing nature walks that are followed by wursts of various sorts and a weissbier. There are worse routines. Get the pun? Sorry.